Taiwanese tycoon launches 'Asian Nobel prizes'

London: A Taiwanese businessmen, who heads a business empire that invests heavily in China, has invested more than three billion Taiwanese dollars, 103 million dollars, to establish what are being dubbed the 'Asian Nobel prizes'.

The Tang Prize Foundation is being set up by Samuel Yin, who said that he had chosen some subjects that are not covered by the five Nobel prizes.

According to the BBC, it will offer prizes of 50 million Taiwanese dollars for advances in sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, China studies, and 'rule of law'.

Yin hoped that the prize will encourage more research that is beneficial to the world and humankind, promote Chinese culture, and make the world a better place.

A statement from the foundation said that the first Tang prizes would be awarded every two years, beginning in 2014, adding that nominations were open to all countries.

The prize money given to winners, equivalent to around 1.7 million dollars, makes them more lucrative than the 118-year-old Nobel prizes, which reward winners with 1.2 million dollars in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace.

The prizes are named after China's Tang dynasty, which ruled more than 1,000 years ago and was known for its cultural and scientific achievements.

In the early 1990s, he set up the Guanhua School of Management at Peking University in Beijing, and has also funded tuition programmes for Chinese students.

His personal fortune is estimated to be more than 100 billion Taiwanese dollars, and he has pledged to give away 95 percent of it, the report add